As you would expect, there are a number of articles available aimed at parents:

Alzheimer’s: Helping Children Understand the Disease. (Mayo Clinic)

Helping Teens Cope with Alzheimer’s Disease (Alzheimer’s Association)

Alzheimer’s in the Family: How Parents Can Help Children Cope.

Parent’s Guide: Helping Children and Teens Understand Alzheimer’s Disease. (Alzheimer’s Association)

But there are also resources available for children and teens that will help them learn and understand Alzheimer’s Disease and how it effects their grandparent.

Alzheimer’s Disease (Neuroscience for Kids)

Alzheimer’s Disease

Just for Children: Helping you Understand Alzheimer’s Disease (Alzheimer’s Association)

Just for Teens: Helping You Understand Alzheimer’s Disease (Alzheimer’s Association)

Inside the Brain: An interactive tour (Alzheimer’s Association)

Helping Children Understand Alzheimer’s Disease. (Alzheimer’s Society)

What’s Happening to Grandpa? (Alzheimer’s Association)

The Alzheimer’s Society of Saskatchewan has Just4Kids website that has features such as visual audio books (My Grandpa George and Grandpa Doesn’t Know It’s Me), interactive quizzes, puzzles, and word searches all designed to help children understand Alzheimer’s Disease.

101 Ways to spend time with a person with Alzheimer’s disease (Alzheimer’s Association)

Hope these resources help anyone having to explain Alzheimer’s Disease to their children…

Post from: Blisstree

Helping Children Understand Alzheimer’s Disease.

Kathy is one such blogger. She started KnowItAlz while caring for her father who suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease. Reading Kathy’s blog is a little like reading a letter from home…she even provides you with a cast of characters so you always know who’s who.

I talked (via email) with Kathy the other day, asking her about blogging about Alzheimer’s.

Here’s what she has to say.

Kathy, what motivated you to start KnowItAlz?

When my mom died suddenly in 2004, my sisters and I decided that I was best equipped to care for Dad at home. It quickly became clear that he was not able to live by himself. My approach to getting him to move in with us was to just ask him if he would mind staying with us for a couple of weeks. Then we just eventually moved all of his things over, and he just transitioned into the move without ‘the talk’.

My goal as a caregiver is to provide a happy, stress free life for Dad, to preservie his pride and dignity, and search out the finest medical care available.

I started KnowItAlz so that I would be forced to think of at least one happy or funny thing every day. I feel that concentrating on the postive side of caregiving makes me a better daughter for my sweet Dad.

So tell us a little about the KnowItAlz blog.

I write a daily entry that shows the lighter (and sometime’s even ridiculous) side of caring for someone with dementia, and offers tips to caregivers. I am hoping to use my experiences as well as the experiences of others to make the caregivers that read the blog find the silver lining.

Here’s one such post:

When I Check out (June 23, 2007) Dad and I were at the grocery store this afternoon buying items for our big cookout. While in the checkout line, Dad noticed this week’s Newsweek magazine. The cover story is about caregiving and Alzheimer’s (a fantastic story by the way, if you haven’t read it).

He cracked us both up.

What do you personally get out of the KnowItAlz blog ?

I feel joy when reading comments from other caregivers that credit KnowItAlz for making them smile, or cheering them up. These are hard working, loving people that often have very few laughs.

And what keeps you blogging ?

I want people to know that an Alzheimer’s diagnosis is not the end of the world for the diagnosed person, or the caregiver. I want to show that even after 7 years into this disease, my Dad and I enjoy moments and memories we have left, and will go out fighting. And laughing.

So when you have free minute, stop by KnowItAlz and say hi to Kathy…

Post from: Blisstree

Interview with a blogger…Kathy from KnowItAlz.com

Sometimes nothing, because family members become too emotional?  Or they’re focusing on the financial rather than the personal needs of the family member.

Or, they can look at the situation, not without emotion or caring, but with concern for everyone involved.  Yes, some family members will do more than others…simply because it’s logistics, their work situation, they don’t have children, or it’s their nature.

An article in BellevilleNewsDemocrat.com refers to this situation, “Decisions about aging parents revive conflicts in adult siblings.“  Mention of the article also is found in Alzheimer’s Daily News with a link to the Belleville News Democrat.

Post from: Blisstree

Does Alzheimer’s Caregiving Strain Family Relationships?